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Dispersed camping · Colorado

BLM Royal Gorge Field Office dispersed camping rules

You can camp up to 14 days in any 30 on this field office's land, anywhere that isn't posted closed. The card below is the whole rule set — every line links the order or page it came from, and all of it was checked on .

14 days in any 30

BLM Colorado statewide camping rules: "You must not camp longer than 14 days in any 30-day period, at any one location"; after 14 days "you must move at least 30 air miles away" (43 CFR 8365.1-6; 75 FR 32968 - the fact sheet states these rules apply statewide to all BLM-administered public lands in Colorado). No RGFO-specific stay-limit rule was found on official pages.

Where you can camp

Allowed unless posted

"Most BLM lands allow dispersed camping unless an area is posted 'Closed to Camping' or has specific restrictions for land use or conservation" (BLM camping program page). Within the Gold Belt Travel Management Plan area (138,600 acres in El Paso, Fremont, Park and Teller counties), motorized-vehicle camping is held within 100 feet of designated roads and trails by supplementary rule. Developed campgrounds serve the Shelf Road climbing area (Sand Gulch and The Bank). source

Keep your distance

  • 100 ft — Gold Belt Travel Management Plan area: "You must not use a motorized vehicle for camping more than 100 feet from a designated road or trail" (final supplementary rules, effective Oct 3, 2005; El Paso, Fremont, Park and Teller counties). source
  • Recommended: 200 ft — BLM's national camping guidance recommends camping "at least 200 feet from lakes, rivers, and streams." No RGFO-wide numeric water setback was found in official rules. source

Roads and vehicle access

Ask the district which roads allow camping

BLM travel-management equivalent of the MVUM rule: "Vehicles must stay on designated roads and trails" (BLM camping guidance), and in the Gold Belt TMP area motorized camping access is limited to 100 feet from designated routes. The field office publishes area maps (e.g. Texas Creek, Shelf Road campground maps) in its public room.

Fires right now

We don't watch this office's fire orders yet — check its own site before you light anything, and the drive out runs on county rules — the Colorado burn ban page has those.

Closures and special orders

Rules checked against the pages linked above — the full list is below the card.

Rules change by forest order and posted signage — confirm with the Royal Gorge Field Office, Canon City at (719) 269-8500 before you go.

How to read these rules

Dispersed camping means camping outside a developed campground — no fee, no table, no toilet, no water. You pick an already-used spot, pack out everything you brought, and the rules above are the whole deal you're agreeing to. The stay limit counts the way the card says it counts, not the way it counts on the forest next door: some places count per spot, some across the whole forest, some inside a radius, and moving a short distance often doesn't restart the clock.

Distance rules come in two shapes. Keep-away rules ("at least 100 feet from water") protect the thing you're camping near; stay-close rules ("within 300 feet of the road") keep vehicles on ground that can take them. A line marked recommended on the card is the office's guidance, not an order — the rest are enforceable rules, and a posted sign at the site beats everything on this page.

On BLM land the travel maps play the same role a national forest's motor vehicle use map plays: they show which routes are open to vehicles, and camping access usually means staying on those routes and pulling into already-used sites just off them.

Fires are a separate rule with a separate clock. Nothing on this page says you can light one — the card's fire line says where that answer lives today. If a fire is allowed when you get there, buy your wood near camp — hauling firewood from home is how tree-killing pests reach new forests, and the BTU chart says what that local bundle is actually worth.

Where these rules come from

Every rule above was read on the office's own pages and orders on the dates shown — nothing here is borrowed from another forest or an old guidebook. The managing agency is Bureau of Land Management, Colorado.

Before you go